Department of Health and Social Care

Strokes: Mechanical Thrombectomy

Lord Bradshaw: To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the effect of the speed of Category 2 ambulance response times on (1) outcomes for stroke survivors and (2) access to thrombectomy treatment.

Baroness Bloomfield of Hinton Waldrist: Category 2 calls are ‘emergency’ calls which include serious time-sensitive incidents such as strokes and heart attacks. NHS England has allocated an additional £150 million for ambulance service pressures in 2022/23, supporting improvements to response times through additional call handler recruitment, retention and other funding requirements.NHS England is providing targeted support to some hospitals which face the greatest delays in the handover of ambulance patients to identify short and longer-term interventions. NHS England is also implementing pre-hospital video triage in ambulances for patients with suspected stroke in specific areas in England. These patients will receive a video consultation from their home or in an ambulance with a hospital-based stroke clinician, who will advise the paramedics on the best course of action for the patient, such as whether thrombectomy is required or to which hospital they should be conveyed.

Cannabis: Prescriptions

Lord Field of Birkenhead: To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer byLord Kamall on 22 July (HL1593),how many (1)NHS, and(2) private, (a) licensed, and (b) unlicensed, prescriptions for cannabis medicines were made for severe treatment-resistant epilepsy in 2022.

Baroness Bloomfield of Hinton Waldrist: This information is not held in the format requested. The NHS Business Services Authority collects data relating to drugs prescribed in the National Health Service in England and dispensed within a community setting and private prescriptions concerning controlled drugs dispensed in the community. However, information on the condition for which a prescription has been issued is not held centrally.We are unable to provide the information requested on NHS prescriptions for unlicensed cannabis-based medicines as the number of items is attributed to fewer than five patients and the data could potentially identify individuals.

Babies: Health Services

Baroness Eaton: To ask Her Majesty's Government what advice they have received on foetal viability from the British Association of Perinatal Medicine, the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, the Neonatal Nurses Association and the British Maternal and Foetal Medicine Society, who published joint guidelines in 2019 on caring for premature babies born from the 22nd week of gestation.

Baroness Bloomfield of Hinton Waldrist: While the Department monitors new evidence on viability, we have not received any such advice from the British Association of Perinatal Medicine, the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, the Neonatal Nurses Association and the British Maternal and Foetal Medicine Society.

NHS: Negligence

Lord Hunt of Kings Heath: To ask Her Majesty's Government, withreference to figure 8 in the NHS Resolution annual report and accounts 2021/22,whether they will specify the number of clinical negligence claims settled inthe year 2021/22.

Baroness Bloomfield of Hinton Waldrist: The following table shows the number of clinical negligence claims settled in 2021/22, whether damages were paid and the status of the proceedings of these claims. No proceedingsProceedings with no trialTrialDamages paid4,555 claims2,207 claims11 claimsNil damages5,539 claims739 Claims19 claims Source: NHS ResolutionNotes:The percentage figures in the table may not add to exactly 100% due to rounding.NHS Resolution has identified that the text accompanying figure 8 of the Annual Reports and Accounts refers to the percentage of clinical negligence claims that have resolved without damages in 2021/22 as 48.5%. The correct figure is 48.2%. NHS Resolution is arranging for an update to the amendments section of its annual report and accounts.

Health Professions: Training

Lord Roberts of Llandudno: To ask Her Majesty's Government what is their policy intention incapping the number of trainee medical professionals in the UK.

Baroness Bloomfield of Hinton Waldrist: Decisions on the number of trainee medical professionals in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland is a devolved matter. While the Government currently has no plans to increase the cap on medical school places in England, we continue to keep this under review.

Prostate Cancer: Screening

Lord Taylor of Warwick: To ask Her Majesty's Government whatplans they have to introduce an NHS national screening programme for prostate cancer.

Baroness Bloomfield of Hinton Waldrist: There are currently no plans to do so. However, the UK National Screening Committee is due to review the evidence for prostate cancer screening in 2023.

Dementia: Health Services

Lord Goodlad: To ask Her Majesty's Government when theywill publish the terms of reference for the National Dementia Mission.

Baroness Bloomfield of Hinton Waldrist: Since its launch, we have commenced the recruitment process for the Chair of the Mission. Once the Chair has been appointed, governance structures and terms of reference will be developed.

Dementia: Research

Lord Goodlad: To ask Her Majesty's Government when theywill set out their spending plan to meet the target to increase dementia research funding to £160 million per year by 2024.

Baroness Bloomfield of Hinton Waldrist: There is no intention to set out a specific spending plan.

Dementia: Health Services

Lord Goodlad: To ask Her Majesty's Government how civil servants will support the delivery of the National Dementia Mission.

Baroness Bloomfield of Hinton Waldrist: Civil servants from the Office for Life Sciences, Department for Health and Social Care and Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy have been developing the Mission and will continue to be represented in any new governance structures and in supporting the Chair, once recruited. The Senior Responsible Officer for the mission will also be a civil servant.

Social Services: Standards

Baroness McIntosh of Pickering: To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the delays to discharge from hospitals owing to the lack of availability of social care; and what steps they intend to take to address this.

Baroness Bloomfield of Hinton Waldrist: We are working with NHS England and local government to monitor and address discharge delays. NHS England’s data shows that on 31 August there were 13,195 patients in hospital in England who no longer meet the criteria to reside. However, this data does not record whether those patients are awaiting a care home placement or care at home.In December 2021, the Department established the National Hospital Discharge Taskforce with membership from local and central government, the National Health Service to identify long-term, sustainable measures to reduce delayed discharges. The Taskforce launched a ‘100-day discharge challenge’ in July 2022, focusing on 10 best practices for use in hospitals. Integrated care systems and local areas have been invited to submit expressions of interest to become ‘discharge frontrunners’ to facilitate the sharing of good practice and ideas to ease discharge pressures. In addition, we are simplifying the recruitment of eligible workers from overseas to allow social care employers to fill vacancies.

Clinical Commissioning Groups: Integrated Care Boards

Baroness Redfern: To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of (1) the challenges of the transition from Clinical Care Commissioning Groups to Integrated Care Boards, and (2) the risk of established ways of working being recreated within the new structures.

Baroness Bloomfield of Hinton Waldrist: NHS England led a transition programme to design integrated care boards (ICBs) and support the transfer of staff, property and liabilities from clinical commissioning groups (CCGs). Through joint planning and progress monitoring between NHS England and the Department, all 42 ICBs were legally established and no significant transition issues reported. Whilst CCG functions have been conferred to ICBs and some continuity will remain where appropriate, ICBs are designed to work differently from CCGs. ICBs have new duties under the Health and Care Act 2022. This includes wider and more integrated care pathways, accelerated work on prevention and the determinants of health, new leadership in the National Health Service and new governance arrangements. The new ICB geographies will adopt new ways of working to ensure that the needs of local populations are responded to.

Community Diagnostic Centres: Finance

Lord Scriven: To ask Her Majesty's Government how much funding was allocated at the start of this financial year for NHS diagnostic centres; and how much of this funding has since been diverted to other NHS services.

Baroness Bloomfield of Hinton Waldrist: The Spending Review in 2021 provided £2.3 billion in capital funding for diagnostic services over the next three years. The majority of this funding will be allocated increase the number of community diagnostic centres (CDCs) to 160 by March 2025 and to expand planned elective diagnostic services. In 2022/23, £900 million has been allocated to the CDC programme and to increase capacity for imaging, endoscopy, lung and mammography screening and improving digital diagnostics. The capital allocation has not been diverted to other services. Revenue funding may be lower than originally envisaged in order to meet the cost of the 2022/23 National Health Service pay settlement.

Coronavirus: Vaccination

Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth: To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, for further COVID-19 vaccination programmes during the autumn of 2022.

Baroness Bloomfield of Hinton Waldrist: The Government continues to be guided by the independent Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) on COVID-19 vaccinations. On 15 July 2022, the Government accepted the JCVI’s advice to offer a booster dose in the autumn to those at higher risk from severe COVID-19 in winter 2022/23. The booster dose will be offered to residents and staff in care homes for older adults; frontline health and social care workers; carers aged 16 years old and over; all adults aged 50 years old and over; and those aged five to 49 years old in a clinical risk group or who are household contacts of someone with immunosuppression.

Coronavirus: Vaccination

Baroness Taylor of Bolton: To ask Her Majesty's Government why they have removed Covid vaccine access for five to 11 year olds given that recent rates of reported cases in children have exceeded those in adults.

Baroness Bloomfield of Hinton Waldrist: There has been no change to the offer of COVID-19 vaccinations for children aged five to 11 years old. In February 2022, the Government accepted advice from the independent Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) for a one-off, non-urgent vaccine offer for children aged five to 11 years old not in clinical risk groups. This offer has been applicable to children aged five years old by 31 August 2022 and eligible children may still receive this vaccination.On 15 July 2022, the Government accepted the advice of the JCVI to offer a booster vaccination in autumn 2022 for those at higher risk of severe COVID-19. All children aged five years old and over in a clinical risk group are eligible for a booster dose in the autumn campaign.

Cabinet Office

Senior Civil Servants

Lord Wallace of Saltaire: To ask Her Majesty's Government why they have ceased publishing the responsibilities and names of all senior civil servants, including those at the SCS1 grade, in all departments of central government.

Lord Wallace of Saltaire: To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made as to whether Freedom of Information principles require the release of the responsibilities and names of all senior civil servants.

Baroness Neville-Rolfe: The guidance for departments to publish their SCS transparency data remains in place, and all departments have published at least once since 1st April 2022.Each department publishes its departmental organograms on data.gov.uk as part of the Government’s commitment to transparency. In order to do so, departments individually collect and present data including names, grades, job titles, and annual pay ranges from Permanent Secretary through to SCS2. Information for those at SCS1 is anonymised.The decision to only publish names for SCS2 and above dates back to 2010, and was made on the grounds of proportionality and reasonable expectations of privacy. The guidance for publication of SCS transparency data was reconfirmed in 2017, and has been reviewed regularly to ensure that it is still appropriate and provides the information that the public might reasonably need.

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Waste Disposal

Lord Patten: To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the health risks, if any, posed by three-weekly rubbish collections during hot weather.

Lord Benyon: The Government has not made an assessment of the health risks of three-weekly collections. Currently only a small minority of local authorities in England provide a three-weekly residual waste collection. The Government supports frequent and comprehensive rubbish and recycling collections. We want to ensure that householders are not inconvenienced by being unable to get rid of putrescent or smelly waste weekly or having insufficient capacity to recycle or to remove residual waste.Through new powers in the Environment Act 2021, local authorities will be required to provide a separate food waste collection to every household in England. Local authorities must implement at least weekly food waste collections and should continue to provide residual waste collections at an appropriate frequency, to ensure they are meeting their legal duty and to prevent any build-up of waste that could be harmful to public health.

Kielder Water

Lord Goddard of Stockport: To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for water, forestry, rural affairs and resource management on 30 June 2014 (202032), what recent assessment they have made of using Kielder Water as a water source linked to a national water grid; and what directives, if any, have been issued to water companies to ensure the subject is included in their Water Resources Management Plans.

Lord Benyon: In its 2019 Water Resources Management Plan (WRMP), Northumbrian Water identified a water surplus available for trading from the Kielder Water Resources Zone. However, no other water company took this forward, due to the costs of the project compared with alternate solutions to secure water supplies.In line with the aims of the National Framework for Water Resources, the Water Resources North regional planning group is assessing how Kielder might be able to support national water resources resilience in the future. In the autumn of this year, we will see draft regional plans and 2024 WRMPs consulted on publicly, and we expect to see water transfers, bulk supplies and connections considered against all other options.